The new era of the audio industry came very silently into our lives. We didn’t even realise how it softly entered our movie theatres and then into our home theatres. Now it has come to our mobiles to give us a new meaning of lost in the story.
With immersive audio technology, now you can feel the characters passing by, a snake crawling beside your legs. Now you can be The Dark Knight of Gotham and feel chased by Dogs. Now the anaconda will feel more realistic and The Transformers will be more mechanical in sound. The whole industry is transforming so are the podcasts.
Podcasts are now in the queue to surprise you with their new immersive technology where you can feel the situations without even watching them visually. A great story writer is always the one capable of grabbing people’s souls into the story. Now they have their most powerful weapon- Dolby Atmos.
The Impact of Dolby Atmos on Podcasts:
The Dolby Atmos technology has been around for more than a decade. However as the technology takes a whole different setup to proceed, it took a long time to enter into our lives. Now as this technology is affordable & manipulated with several software, we have our hands on Dolby Atmos audio with our headphones.
1. Impactful Sound Quality:
Without a doubt, Dolby Atmos improves the sound quality by 100 times. As the sound must be supportive of the detailing of narration and related narration scenes, it must be of high quality. This means there must be minimum or zero noise issues to let the listeners feel the situation.
Dolby Atmos doesn’t treat sound as a track but objects played simultaneously. Such a viewpoint automatically creates a need for better quality and this technology leaves no petals unturned. While listening to an audio piece, you can listen to all sound elements.
2. Detailed Storytelling Experience:
The concept of Dolby Atmos has detailing at its core. Earlier all the audio elements used to work in one plane, crushing each other to get the space. Instead, the audio elements in Dolby Atmos play their respective parts in the journey to create a 3-D immersive experience.
This setting of audio elements gives more meaning to the audio, allowing its listeners to feel the minute of details.
3. More Emotional Journey:
A podcast is a journey of a person or a character through which a listener goes too. A story’s complete motive is to share the feeling a character is going through with people. Failed to do so, we can’t consider them a story or podcast at all.
Dolby Atmos offers you an opportunity to feel all that journey with emotions overloaded. You would feel the intensity of any situation, be it serious or laughable. A story will let you live that story and make you feel like the main character. So if you’re into the Dolby Atmos Podcasts, be ready to be submerged in the world of fiction.
How to Create a Dolby Atmos Podcast?
The music industry needed quite a time to adapt to Dolby Atmos. We all know that it needs several new devices to create a Dolby Atmos audio piece. These audio pieces are mostly released in .WAF format. Seems tough but these Dolby audios are not that difficult to create. If you’re into making music or podcasts, the following steps will change the way you work.
You will need three essential pieces of equipment to create one as follows.
– A compatible Digital Audio Workstation (DAW):
A workstation will help you in mixing the recorded audio elements for the podcasts. The device is designed to create 3-D panning within the audio. Not all DAW will support Dolby Atmos. They either need to support Integrated Panning, Dolby Atmos Music Panner, or Integrated Renderer.
– The Dolby Atmos Renderer:
It is software that allows you to monitor the Dolby Mix and creates the master files for delivery.
– A Compatible Monitoring System:
As Dolby Atmos is an object-based sound system, the best way to test the final output is to play that in a compatible set of speakers and devices. Though Dolby Atmos is compatible with headphones, the biggest compatibility test will always be a studio room with speakers placed in 3-D space.
Recommended speaker sets are 7 surround speakers, 1 subwoofer, and 4-overhead speakers (7.1.4) and 5 surround speakers, 1 subwoofer, and 4-overhead speakers (5.1.4).
Creating a Dolby Atmos Podcast:
1. Record Your Audio and Mix:
Dolby Atmos needs separate audio pieces for each sound element you need to show at a scene. Record high-quality sound elements and put that into the DAW setup. This will edit the sound effects, narration, dialogue, and ambiance with their respective places. Pay attention to audio placement and separation between audio elements.
2. Setting up the Metadata:
Dolby Technology uses Metadata to describe the spatial positioning of the audio elements. You will need software to embed the metadata into your audio file to describe the space, position, movement, and characteristics.
3. Convert the File:
Once you have set up the whole audio, you need to finalise it with finishing and convert it to a format suitable for distribution. With the help of Dolby Atmos Renderer, you can manipulate the Metadata and convert the final audio file into a compatible Dolby Atmos playback system to distribute.
4. Search for the Right Platforms:
Not all platforms support Dolby Atmos Sound. It’s still in the process of becoming a mainstream audio format. Recently Apple TV, Tridal, and Amazon Music have started supporting the Dolby Atmos sound experience with some selected audios from their library.
Many more platforms are emerging and you can contact them too.
5. Distribution:
Make a deal with the chosen platform and upload the Dolby Atmos sound. Ensure the experience of your listeners by regularly communicating and asking for reviews.
Conclusion:
Dolby Atmos podcasts are the future of the audio industry. In the past 10 years, Dolby has changed the theatre experience and now the turn is for individual digital experience with headphones. Podcasts are a great way to deliver the stories and let your listener dive into them. Dolby enhances the chances by 100 times at least. In this article, we have discussed how Dolby improves your podcast experience and how to create a Dolby Atmos Podcast. Hope you have liked this article. Thanks for reading !!!
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